Biography

Born and raised in Minnesota as an only child, Marsha Wilson Chall amused herself in daydream and now sets those dreams in the storyscapes of lakes, woods, prairie, and beyond (even France). She hopes her books invite the reader to explore new destinations, both outward and inward.

Chall has published a children’s chapter book and eleven picture books, including Pick a Pup, One Pup’s Up, Up North at the Cabin, and Bonaparte. Her books have received numerous awards: an International Reading Association Teacher’s Choice Award, American Booksellers Pick of the Lists, Parents Choice, NAPPA Gold Award, and Smithsonian Notable recognition.

When she’s not writing or sharing her love of good books at schools or conferences, she edits writers’ manuscripts and teaches private workshops and university classes, most recently in the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Hamline University. She has two grown children and four growing grandchildren and lives up North at her cabin with her dog, books, animal friends, and human visitors.

Eudora Welty said that “children, like animals, use all their senses to discover the world. Then artists come along and discover it the same way, all over again.” So I write to interpret and preserve experience, to capture it so it can never be lost. Writing for children allows me that joy of experiencing the world over and over again for the first time. Adults lose this childlike appreciation and discovery through over-complication. I like to make the complex simple. Not simple-minded, but pared down to the essential.